


How To Ask A Girl To The Ball

by aspermoth



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, F/M, Humor, Yule Ball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-27
Updated: 2011-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-28 06:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/304655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspermoth/pseuds/aspermoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting a Yule Ball date can be difficult, so Harry – in his desperation – has come up with a... novel solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How To Ask A Girl To The Ball

" _Copula captivus_!"

A small and rather measly coil of string emerged from Harry’s wand and dropped limply to the floor about three feet away from its intended target, Harry’s carefully propped up Firebolt. Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He’d been practising this spell for _hours_ and he still hadn’t been able to conjure up a decent lasso. This was the closest he had gotten; his previous attempts littered the floor of the Gryffindor common room, ranging from loops the thickness of a piece of cotton to the frayed, curled strands of string that had fallen to pieces. Harry pointed his wand at the pieces of string.

" _Accio string_!"

Every piece of string jumped from the floor and flew to Harry’s outstretched hand. Harry scrunched them up into a ball and walked over to the fire, dropping them into the blaze without much thought. He was improving, that much was clear, but it still wasn’t good enough. What he wouldn’t give to have Hermione’s knack for picking up spells... Well. He’d just have to manage without it. If he could learn to master the Summoning Charm in an evening, he could learn to master the Lasso Charm in an evening. Harry took up his place several feet away from his broomstick and raised his wand.

" _Copula captivus_!" he yelled, swinging his wand down in an arc over his shoulder to point at his broom.

A marginally thicker coil of string burst from Harry’s wand and fell to the floor about an inch closer to the broom that its predecessor. What did he _need_? What was it that he needed to _do_ to get this spell working? He needed to get this to work; he _needed_ to get Cho on her own. Cho’s face floated into Harry’s mind’s eye. She was smiling.

One more go.

Harry raised his wand. Cho seemed to be egging him on his mind.

 _Go on, Harry! You can do it!_

" _Copula captivus_!"

Harry brought his wand down. A thin piece of rope, tied into a lasso, flew from the end of his wand and landed neatly over the handle of his broom, sinking slipped down to roughly the height of Harry’s waist and tightened. Harry grinned and pulled his wand backwards. The rope tightened and Harry’s broom flew across the room to his outstretched hand. _Excellent_. Just a little more practise and he’d be ready.

Half an hour later, Harry staggered up to bed, exhausted but thoroughly satisfied. By this time tomorrow, he told himself, he would have a date for the Yule Ball.

\- - - - -

Harry found it hard to concentrate in class the next morning. His mind was full of what he was about to do and whether or not it would look completely ridiculous. But how else was he supposed to separate Cho from her crowd of friends? Fortunately, Professor Flitwick was in a cheerful mood due to the close proximity of Christmas, so Harry didn’t end up with a load of extra work. At the end of Charms, Harry felt that it was time to put his plan into action.

As he left the Charms classroom, Harry felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Ron.

"Oi, Harry. What’s with you today?"

"I’m getting a date for the Yule Ball," said Harry in a voice more determined than he actually felt. "You coming?"

"Why, can you get me one?" asked Ron dubiously.

"Maybe."

"All right then."

Harry kept his eyes peeled for Cho as they made their way through the castle, girls giggling from all sides. Suddenly -

"There’s Cho!" Harry murmured.

"You’re asking her?" Ron’s eyebrows began to rise.

Harry nodded and raised his wand.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked.

"You said to lasso one," Harry pointed out. " _Copula captivus_!"

A lasso leapt from the end of Harry’s wand and across the corridor, the loop falling neatly over Cho’s shoulders and tightening around her arms. Harry gave a pull on his wand and she was dragged bodily away from her shrieking friends to Harry’s side.

"Harry, what on earth are you-"

"Wannagoballwime?" Harry gabbled before he lost his nerve.

"I’m sorry?"

Harry took a deep breath and repeated himself more coherently.

"I said, do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

For a few stomach-churning seconds, Cho paused, thinking it over. Then she smiled.

"I don’t have to go in the lasso, do I?" she asked.

Harry laughed, perhaps a little too loudly.

"No, no, of course not. So do you want to go?"

"Yes, Harry. I will go to the ball with you."

His heart did a backwards summersault of glee inside his chest as Cho lifted the lasso off over her head and returning to her cackling friends. When he turn to look at Ron’s reaction, it was almost as satisfying.

"That," Ron declared, expression gobsmacked, "was bloody brilliant. Teach me?"

"And me?" asked somebody from Harry’s left.

"And me!"

"And me!"

"Me too!"

All in all, it was a resounding success. And the icing on the cake was when he found out that Cedric Diggory asked Cho out not twenty minutes after he’d lassoed her and she’d turned him down.

A spate of magical lasso-ings ensued, of course; in fact, it became so popular with the students that it became a Hogwarts tradition to lasso your Yule Ball date and Professor Flitwick was called upon to teach each generation of students how to perform the charm correctly.

And that Christmas, Harry Potter had the best Yule Ball of any student in the history of Hogwarts.


End file.
